PHOENIX  Ron Artest followed the highlight of his topsy-turvy season with the Los Angeles Lakers with yet another.

Artest scored a playoff-high 25 points, and along with Kobe Bryant's game-high 37, led the Lakers to a decisive Game 6 victory in the Western Conference finals 111-103 and a return to the NBA Finals.

"I don't really have any feelings yet," Artest, in his first season with the Lakers, said about playing in his first NBA Finals. "We'll just play another game. Whether you're home, whether it's a first-round game or a season-ending game you always want to give 100%."

The finals commence Thursday in Los Angeles vs. the Boston Celtics (ABC, 9 p.m. ET). Both franchises have combined to win 32 NBA championships, and it represents a rematch of the 2008 finals won by the Celtics in six games.

"We figured out the zone," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of the Suns' zone defense, which his team had difficulty solving since Game 3. "Played well against it."

The Suns went on a 29-14 run, that started at the 2:24 mark of the third quarter, to trim an 18-point deficit to 99-96 at 2:19 of the fourth on a reverse layup by Suns point guard Steve Nash.

Bryant, however, wouldn't let Los Angeles lose. He re-entered the game with 9:42 left to knock down three consecutive jump shots, assist on a basket by Derek Fisher and hit all six free throws to hold off Phoenix and prevent a Game 7. All three jumpers were well contested by Suns defenders Grant Hill and Channing Frye, and on two of them Bryant was off balance and fading away from the basket. On one of them, Hill (6-8) and Frye (6-11) were in his face with their arms extended.

"I always thought he was the best player in basketball," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "He didn't do anything in this series to make me think otherwise.... Every time we got it close, Kobe made an incredibly tough shot that was well-defended. For that, there is no answer."

Gentry could only laugh at his team's misfortune. He had an interesting exchange with Bryant after the seemingly impossible shot he made over Hill to make the it 107-100 with 34.2 seconds left.

"After I knocked down the shot, I just heard (Gentry) mutter something like, 'That's BS' ... about the shot. Just made me smile," said Bryant, who gave the coach a friendly slap on the backside.

It was the second game in a row that the Suns had to battle back from an 18-point deficit. Both times resulted in losses after they'd tied the series 2-2.

"It was a phenomenal run and we fell short and it hurts," said Nash, who finished with 21 points and nine assists. "It hurts a lot."

Reserves Frye and Goran Dragic had 12 points, but unlike in their 103-101 loss on Thursday in Los Angeles, the Suns became the first home team to lose on its floor in this series.

The first half was all offense. Artest, coming off a 2-for-9 shooting performance in Game 5 when he scored the game-winning shot at the buzzer, led all scorers with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting, including converting on all three of his three-point shots.

The Lakers shot 61.9% while the Suns went 52.6% in the first quarter as neither team's defense could muster many stops to build a significant margin.

The fast pace appeared to favor the Suns, who were able to neutralize Los Angeles' size advantage in the paint with 7-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

Phoenix's zone defense started to pay dividends by the second quarter. After falling behind 40-34 on a three-pointer by Lakers reserve Sasha Vujacic, Jared Dudley responded with a baseline three.

Dudley, along with Louis Amundson, blocked the shot of Lakers forward Lamar Odom in the paint. Then Los Angeles also came up empty on the next few possessions because of turnovers, and two field goals by Dragic gave Phoenix its last lead at 43-42 at 8:04 before the half.

That's when Artest took over. He hit a three-pointer to make the score 54-45, but he made a key defensive play that really ignited the Lakers' push to put the game away early.

After a pair of misses by Bryant, and a miss on his own putback, Artest didn't give up on the play. Frye gathered the rebound, but Artest stripped him from behind and converted a lay up. Then Bryant's three-pointer ended the half at 65-53.

The Lakers were well on their way to an easy victory with a 91-76 lead until Vujacic elbowed Dragic in the face at 11:18 of the fourth quarter to draw a flagrant foul. That sparked the Suns, especially Dragic who scored the next six points in a row.

For the second game in a row, Suns center Robin Lopez went scoreless. He went to the bench early because of foul trouble and played just eight minutes.

Amar'e Stoudemire was out of sync. He led Phoenix with 27 points, but 13 of those came from the free throw line. He shot just 7-for-20 and was immediately swarmed whenever he touched the ball in the low post.

"We didn't give Amar'e room to drive," Jackson said. "We tried to close out on him a little bit, tried to jam him so he would have a little bit of a tough time finding the pathway. I thought the guys contested pretty well. He got to the line a lot, but I thought we kept him off his shot, kept him from scoring a lot of field goals."

The Lakers won't practice Sunday but are eager to get ready for the Celtics. They split the season series 1-1, winning at Boston 90-89 on Jan. 31 and losing at home 87-86 on Feb. 18.

Bryant hit the game-winner at the buzzer in the Lakers' win. He didn't play in their loss because of an ankle injury. He expects an entirely different series than he just had against the Suns, against whom the Lakers averaged 126 points in their first two games at home.

"We've had three series which every single one of them has been different," Bryant said, alluding to first- and second-round victories against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz. "Now we're going into this series where the level of intensity and physicality is going to be at an all-time high. … We're not looking at games that (will be) 115 or 110-point range."

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